• Woman who has been diagnosed as a sex addict sues a school district for failing to prevent her from having sex with male students on the school bus when she was in 11th grade.Barksdale v. Egg Harbor Township Bd. of Ed.

• Civil rights activist challenges Georgia's "stand your ground law." "By not defining what actions create a reasonable perception justifying the use of deadly force, the Act[] potentially deprives all Georgia[n]s of the right to life without due process of law." Hutchins v. Deal

• Former patient of a Rhode Island doctor sues him for featuring her in a book about drug addiction. "Plaintiff had expected, as any reasonable patient would, that her private conversations during her treatment sessions with the Defendant would remain private and confidential."Lisnoff v. Stein

• Class action alleges the YMCA deceives consumers by representing that it practices "Christian" values while allowing its gyms to be used for gay sex trysts. "YMCAs around the country ... are currently being used as brothels for cruising, with the YMCA's knowledge and implicit consent."Keister v. YMCA

• Social workers are not liable for a sexual assault on a 5-year-old boy by a 16-year-old male placed in an adoptive home. "To rule against the individual defendants in this case would definitely break new ground."Doe v. Braddy

• Student sues college for refusing to grant her the "reasonable accommodation" of a single room after she complained about her roommate's exhibitionist behavior. Blankmeyer v. Stonehill College

• School district can be sued over a guidance counselor's sexual relationship with a student who was over the age of consent. "The inherent imbalance of power between a guidance counselor in a public school and a student may render opportunistic sexual predation sufficiently shocking, even with a 'consenting' student over sixteen, to form the basis of a substantive due process claim."Doe v. Fournier

• Utah judge finds a "credible threat" that Utah County officials will prosecute a polygamist and his wives for bigamy. The officials' acts "suggest that an actual prosecution of Plaintiffs is forthcoming."Brown v. Herbert

• Louisville, Ky., strip club sues a competitor for displaying an electronic sign outside a convention center that said "Don't go to Godfathers, their girls are ugly and have crabs."The Godfather v. Trixie's Lounge

• A lawyer cannot sue two women he dated for posting derogatory comments about him on liarscheatersrus.com. "[W]hen viewed within the larger context of the website on which they were posted, there can be no doubt that a reasonable reader would understand the comments to be opinion." Coulotte v. Ryncarz

• Oglala Sioux tribe sues beer makers and Whiteclay, Neb., bars for enabling alcohol abuse on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The illegal trade in alcohol has "caused devastating injuries to the Lakota people and massive financial damages to the [tribe]."Oglala Sioux Tribe v. Schwarting

Kobe Bryant can now focus on the NBA playoffs. A lawsuit in which a former housekeeper alleged his wife verbally abused her has ended in a settlement that did not require him to pay her anything.

The Bryants

Maria Jimenez'scase raised novel employment law issues. In a first-of-its-kind decision, an Orange County (Calif.) Superior Court judge ruled in September that her claim for wrongful termination against the Bryants fell under a “public policy” exception to an employer's right to terminate at-will employees.

“Ms. Jimenez's assertion of her rights potentially benefits all domestic workers who are subject to abusive actions by their employers,” Judge Kirk H. Nakamura said.

But with the Bryants' motion for summary judgment pending, Jimenez filed court papers earlier this week dismissing her case. The Bryants, in turn, dismissed their countersuit against her for breach of a confidentiality agreement.

"The matter has been resolved as both parties have dismissed their respective complaints against each other," the Bryants' attorneys at Loeb & Loeb in Santa Monica said in a statement. "No money has been paid to Ms. Jimenez by Mr. and Mrs. Bryant."

UPDATE

Contradicting the lawyers' statement, TMZ reports that the Bryants paid Jimenez $200,000 to settle her claims.

Jimenez alleged that Vanessa Bryant subjected her to a “continuing pattern” of verbal abuse and demeaning behavior after she began working for the Bryants at their Newport Beach home in September 2007. “Among other abusive comments, Vanessa called Maria 'lazy,' 'slow,' 'a f---ing liar' and 'f---ing sh-t,'” the complaint said.

The final straw, Jimenez said, was when “Vanessa demanded that Maria put her hand in a bag of dog feces” to retrieve the price tag for a $690 blouse she had mistakenly put in the washing machine.

After quitting in March 2008, Jimenez sued for wrongful “constructive discharge,” meaning she was forced to resign because of “intolerable working conditions.”

In California, a claim of wrongful discharge in violation of public policy must be based on a statute or constitutional provision. Jimenez based hers on Civil Code Section 43, which says “every person has ... the right of protection from bodily restraint or harm, from personal insult, from defamation, and from injury to his personal relations.”

In denying the Bryants' motion to dismiss, Nakamura appeared to open employers up to liability under Section 43 for terminating employees whom they have insulted — which is surely beyond the scope of the “public policy” exception.

The judge also refused to dismiss the countersuit, finding that statements Jimenez made about Vanessa Bryant were not protected under a California free-speech law because they did not concern “a public issue or an issue of public interest. The speech concerned Vanessa Bryant, who, unlike her husband, has not been shown to be a public personality.”

The mother of a prostitute slain by the “Craigslist killer” at a Marriott hotel in Boston has alleged in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that the hotel's operator is liable for her daughter's death because it failed to prevent prostitution from occurring on its premises.

The Utah Supreme Court has given a boost to the battle against prescription drug abuse by ruling that medical professionals can be sued over injuries to a nonpatient that were allegedly caused by drugs they carelessly prescribed to patients.

The family of a 15-year-old girl who was killed in the crossfire of a gang shootout on a Caribbean island has asked an appeals court to reinstate a lawsuit that tests the liability of cruise ship operators for onshore injuries to passengers.

In yet another “swoon and fall” case against a church, an Illinois woman claims she was injured during a church service when a parishioner who was receiving the “spirit” fell backward, knocking several other worshippers into her.

Jurors may have opened the door to a new trial in a Maryland school bullying case by saying they returned a verdict for the defense because they were afraid of setting a bad precedent for school systems throughout the country.

The maker of Four Loko has previewed its defense of a slew of product liability lawsuits, arguing that the physical effects of the energy drink's mixture of alcohol and caffeine — far from being an undisclosed risk to consumers — are precisely what made it so popular.